Not Their Party

When Christians get into a scholarly scuffle, we too often end up conceding this or that starting point. This may happen for various reasons, but the Christian apologist should always be conscious of where he stands during any conversation. The Christian cannot attempt any discussion from a position of neutrality, nor can he assume that such things as “science” or “history” exist on that level of neutrality either. If Christianity is true, then science and history are fundamentally Christian. We are not walking into someone else’s party (read: worldview), they are walking into ours. If Christianity is true in the absolute sense, which it is, then the Christian apologist never has to be afraid of the facts; all of those already belong to God, and are governed by Him.

This particular understanding is something that comes by faith. Which is why, in my opinion, evidentialism falls so far flat. Consider this line from Chesterton:

It is very hard for a man to defend anything of which he is entirely convinced. It is comparatively easy when he is only partially convinced. He is partially convinced because he has found this or that proof of the thing, and he can expound it. But a man is not really convinced of a philosophic theory when he finds that something proves it. He is only really convinced when he finds that everything proves it.[1]